Velvet Underground, Warhol end banana split

Patricia Hurtado and Don Jeffrey

The Velvet Underground reached a settlement of its lawsuit claiming that the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts infringed the rock band's trademark for the banana design that appeared on an album cover.

US District judge Alison Nathan said in an order today in Manhattan that the case has been discontinued.

"The parties have reached a confidential agreement to settle the case," Joshua Paul, a lawyer for the Warhol Foundation, said in a letter yesterday to the judge.

The Warhol Foundation, which licenses merchandise based on the late artist's designs, said that it owned the rights to the banana design he created for the band's first commercial album. The Velvet Underground and its founders, Lou Reed and John Cale, sued the foundation in January 2012, claiming it had trademark rights to the banana design, which has become a "symbol, truly an icon" of the group.